True Authority

In most of the last couple of years of Standard, we’ve seen varying takes on tokens. In the past, these decks have been powered by cards like Hangarback Walker and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar. We’ve got lots of great Green and White midrange cards in this Standard format, but they’ve been largely crowded out by energy cards, Glorybringer, and The Scarab God. That said, the recent bannings have created a little more breathing room in Standard, so maybe now is the time for to return to prominence:

The hallmark of midrange decks is early pressure backed by the ability to play enormous value creatures later on in the game. This deck is no different. You want to start the game off with either Adanto Vanguard or Merfolk Branchwalker. These are both creatures that are great at either trading early or getting in a few hits, and both have the ability to generate additional value. These cards can even help you flip an early Legion’s Landing to help accelerate you into your midgame plays or let you start grinding away by generating tokens.

Your midgame haymaker is Sram’s Expertise. This card does a ton of things for this deck. It allows you to put a bunch of bodies on the board to keep Mono-Red from getting ahead of you. It lets you play Servo Exhibition or one of your other two-drops to stabilize the board, cheat in a Jadelight Ranger which might otherwise be difficult to cast.

Your end game revolves almost entirely around Appeal // Authority. With your ability to leverage the likes of Oketra the True, Legion’s Landing, and eternalize creatures to maintain and increase your board presence, Appeal can easily threaten to one-shot your opponent. This is especially true in conjunction with Adorned Pouncer and Authority’s ability to tap down opposing blockers. What you have to worry about is opposing removal. That’s where your Blossoming Defenses, eternalize creatures, and Oketras come into play. These cards make your threats more resilient, and help to put your opponent further and further behind, even while threatening to kill them outright.

This is a straightforward but powerful deck. Your gameplan is consistent and difficult to disrupt. Your cards are powerful all the way up the curve and you can easily steal games off of unsuspecting opponents. If you’re looking for a way to punish opponents who are overprepared for greedy midrange mirrors and Mono-Red, this seems like a great way to do it.

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About Carlos Gutierrez

Carlos Gutierrez is an Associate Editor for Gathering Magic, a Commander and Pauper enthusiast, and a lover of all manner of wacky decks. By day, he works as a rocket scientist, but he spends his weekends hitting all his land drops and trying new board games, puzzles, and video games. You can find all of him sharing Commander craziness, baked goods, and other nerdy things on Twitter @cag5383.

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